Close the School of the Assassins

On the Sunday before Thanksgiving several thousand people gathered at the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia to protest against the so-called School of the Americas (SOA) this event has been repeated annually since 1990. The SOA was initially established in Panama in 1946 however it was expelled from Panama in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty and moved to Fort Benning.  

Former Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.” The SOA has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned. For this reason the School of the Americas has been historically dubbed the “School of Assassins”. In 2001 the School of the Americas was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation

Since 1946, the SOA has trained over 64,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.

The consequence of this kind of training has been at the heart of the public and congressional controversy surrounding the SOA. It hones the skills of Latin American soldiers who then can use what they learned against their own people. For example, some of the Salvadoran soldiers cited in the UN Truth Commission report for the massacre of six Jesuit priests and their women co-workers had just returned from taking the SOA commando operations course. SOA graduates have also been implicated in the assassination of Salvadoran Bishop Oscar Romero, as well as the torture, rape and murder of four female American Maryknoll missionaries.

Union organizers are among the primary targets of SOA violence in Colombia. SOA graduates have been directly responsible for the slaying of countless striking workers union organizers. In 1996, the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the SOA. These manuals advocated interrogation techniques such as false imprisonment, torture and execution. According to these manuals, these techniques should be used on those who… 

• support “union organizing or recruiting”
• distribute “propaganda in favor of the interests of workers"
• “Sympathize with demonstrators or strikes”
• make "accusations that the government has failed to meet the basic needs of the people"

Representative James McGovern (MA) reintroduced the Latin America Military Training Review Act as HR 3368 on November 4, 2011 along with 21 other co-sponsors. This legislation would suspend operations at the SOA/ WHINSEC, investigate torture manuals and human rights abuses associated with the school, and conduct an assessment of military training in Latin America.

For more information: http://www.soaw.org/take-action/legislative